A fugitive police officer has been arrested for the killing of a student whose death inflamed tensions over one of Mexico's worst human rights tragedies, authorities said Wednesday.
Yanqui Gomez, 23, was shot dead on March 7 in a confrontation with police in the southern state of Guerrero, prompting angry students to set fire to patrol cars.
Gomez attended the Ayotzinapa college, the same teaching training center as 43 students whose murky disappearance nearly a decade ago shocked the nation.
"Today at dawn the police officer who killed the young man from Ayotzinapa was arrested. All those who participated are now in prison," President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said.
The officer was detained at a ranch protected by guards, he said at his daily news conference.
The shooting took place a day after protesters smashed open a door to Mexico's presidential palace demanding to meet Lopez Obrador to discuss the Ayotzinapa case.
The 43 students had been traveling to a demonstration in Mexico City in 2014 when investigators believe they were kidnapped by a drug cartel in collusion with corrupt police.
The exact circumstances of their disappearance are still unknown, but a truth commission set up by the government has branded the case a "state crime," saying the military shared responsibility, either directly or through negligence.
So far, the bodies of only three of the students have been found.
Arrests have been made or ordered for dozens of suspects, including military personnel and a former attorney general who led a controversial investigation into the mass disappearance.